The present invention addresses a well-known need in the electronics and fiber optics industries. Typically, fiber optic cables optically coupled to circuit boards within an electronics housing are routed across the face of the interior of the electronics housing until they reach a vertical duct, often located at one side of the electronics housing. As the number of fiber optic cables to be so routed increases, the face of an electronics housing becomes increasingly crowded with fiber optic cables. This crowding creates several problems.
Due to its routing across the face of the housing, one must move or handle a particular fiber optic cable in order to remove a circuit board from the housing for service, testing, or replacement. This moving or handling of the fiber optic cable increases the chance for breakage, and each time a fiber optic cable breaks, the broken pieces of the cable must be repaired, such as by splicing the pieces together. Fiber optic cable splices decrease the optical performance of such cables, as is well known in the art. In addition, if a particular fiber optic cable breaks twice, one must typically remove the broken cable from the housing and route an entirely new cable through the housing in order to achieve the desired optical performance. Both the splicing and re-routing operations increase service time and service costs.
This crowding of fiber optic cables also creates a marketing problem for manufacturers of electronics products. Having a mass of fiber optic cables routed across the face of an electronics housing is often not aesthetically pleasing to the customer. This aesthetic problem can have detrimental effects on both sales and customer satisfaction.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an assembly for routing fiber optic cables optically connected to circuit boards within an electronics housing transversely across the housing interior.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such an assembly which can be pivoted away from the housing interior so that the circuit boards within the housing can be removed for service, testing, or replacement without handling of or with minimal handling of individual fiber optic cables.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such an assembly which neatly packages and identifies the particular fiber optic cables routed in this manner.
Still other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in art having references to the following specification together with its drawings.